Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-11-20
OLD TIMES IN WHEELING.
h Importance Of the First Ward as a
Manufacturing Center In Former Days
Other Interesting Points.

Aho AhPorIanCo VI the rHot "aru "a u
Manufacturing Center in Former Days
Other Interesting Points.
l I'm glad to see the First ward recover.
ing some of its old time prestige in regard
to manufactures. When the Sweeneys
met with misfortunes it was somewhat OF
a blow to that end of the city. 1t was at
one time-early in the sixties-a very
busy manufacturing section of the city, if
not the very busiest. l well remember
thescenes of activity that clustered in and
around the extensive ship building yards
of Wilson, DuDlevy & Co., Phillips foun-
dry and machine shops, the larger plant OF
the Sweeneys, the ~pretentious glass works
establishment and the Top Mill. Natural
causes dropped many of these concerns
from the category OF existence, and silence
dwelt where it was once broken by the
sound of the hammer, the chisel, the saw
and the whirr of machinery. For a time
the prospect looked rather dark for the
oldest part of the town, for which nature
had done so much in the way of eligible
sites.
While the owl did not hOot in the ruins
of the decsyed industries, he certainly
would have found solitary and gloomy
enough quarters in some of them. But
the small boy did, and he was equal to a
hundred owls. But how the aspect is
changed again, as the magic wand of CAPT
tai is being waved over the waste places.
A large foundry has been in successful OPP
Grafton for some time; a glass house been
burned and replaced by a modern struct-
ure; a match factory has added to the di-
versity of our industries, and last, but not
least, q pottery is rearing its massive walls
and will sOon be in operation. Other
things may yet come, but there are enough
assured to brighten faces and give this
ancient section an appearance OF its old
time prosperity. May the good work still
go on.
~
l heard a man criticising the ~typOgraph-
ical errors that appear in the daily papers,
and | knew he was not acquainted with
one of the mysteries of getting out a news
paper, and of which the general public
knows little or nothing. l don't suppose
he dreamed Of the quantities. ones name
has to run; how narrow some of the es-
capes are and how many murders are real
ly committed in the name of al enlight'
ened press. Those who have Weakened IN
the morning and found q choice phrase or
sentence mangled and torn DO not know of
the woe that sits on the brow Of the man
aging editor, or how the proof reader tries
to slip in unseen, unsought and unslug-
ged. In taking everything into consider
alton, il is { wonder TO me that a news
paper comes out as clean rs it does where
everything is done with such a rush. l
have been really surprised, though, in
CHANGING over some pretentious books,
that nave the guarantee of good
faith in the shape of names re-
putable publishing houses marked on the
title page, to find in some instances glarlDg
grammatical mistakes, and some of the
most picturesquely wonderful TYPOGRAPHY
zeal errors that ever saddeued a printers
heart. The mystery is that so few errors
appear and that more do not occur.
-
There are no times like the old times"
Of course this is not strictly true; for what
the poet meant, | think, was that the mem
DRY of days past and gOne-"when you and
| were young, Maggie'-was what gave
IoSy-colOred pleasure to reflection. Still,
the line scanned in another sense is strictly
true. For instance, the old times in
Wheeling are nothing to what they are
now. 1t was a poor winter, indeed, when
we did not have good and loDg-con-
tinued skating on the creek. But it
seems that in later years the
water dent freeze like it used to.
Still there is the skating rink which has
made the sport more comfortable, but not
halt so exhiierating and healthful. And,
further, there was no professor in the
old days 20 elOpe with. But there was the
romance of rescuiug the young lady who
he'd Internationally taken an icy bath.
| There is 10 good, oid-time sled riding now,
but we are offered the less dangerous to-
boggan slide, and, in summer, the swift
| flying roller coaster. Nevertheless, the
good little boy goeS.tO Sunday School and
the bad one goes in Swimming on Sunday
and is drowned, as in days OF yore.
~
There is one thing that we had in the
long ago for which there is no adequate
substitute, and never can be, unless it be
a return TO primitive times, and
that is the old fashioned tireman's parade.
OF course, once in q while we have a state
" review of FURNISHED engines aud flower
trimmed hose carts, but there is too much
repose IN such u procession for a man with
a good memory, and it is lacking in the ex-
citement of the days of the old hand drawn
engines and gaily uniformed tiremen. In
the good old days Wheeling, like ancient
Gaul, was divided into three parts-not
geographically, but sectionally-NOrth,
South and East Wheeling, and it was
something to be a Roman, indeed, then. An
East Wheeling cherub suffered badly if he
crossed the frontier of North Wheeling
without being backed by his ~lictOrs, and
vice versa.
The occasion of the fremen's an
nual parade was the signal
for war, and days before it came off the
knights would spend their time in bur
uishiug their arms for the fray. The boys
in each section accompanied their engine,
aud before the parade ended the three clans
generally came together. No n was ever
seriously hurt, and with the exception of a
bruised head and shins, the armies We're
ready for action on the morrow. Now all
that is past, and the East Wheeling Cow
ard" North Wheeling rat and South
Wheeling ''sneak'-as they called each
Other-can cross and recrOss the old lines
of boundary without fear Of molestation.
But life is not half so exciting to the small
boy.
wELLSBURG NOTES.